MMA Junkie reports that a potential superfight between Georges St. Pierre v. Anderson Silva could happen in 2011 if both win their next fights.
Via MMA Junkie:
UFC president Dana White said if the UFC’s current welterweight and middleweight championships prove successful in their next title defense, they could meet in a rare champion-vs.-champion fight later this year. “If they both win their fights, that fight makes all the sense in the world,” White said.
Payout Perspective:
White’s comments occurred Friday during a Q&A session in support of the UFC’s Fight for the Troops event. Whether White’s comments were off the cuff or planned, this could be huge news. I wonder if this was even discussed with GSP or Silva.
But upon further review, White stated that the fight “makes sense,” not that it would happen. This allows a little wiggle room if it were not to happen. Still, the rumors will have fans buzzing and anticipating the upcoming matchups.
A GSP-Silva fight could be what the UFC needs to bolster PPV buy rates. As mentioned previously, UFC PPV buys may be in a rebuilding year and one of the reasons why PPV buys were where they were in 2010 was because of Brock Lesnar. A superfight between the two champs in the UFC divisions could draw “Brock Lesnar” like PPV numbers. I would envision the UFC put this fight in Las Vegas (despite UFC 125’s weak draw) at the end of the year to show that Vegas is still the epicenter for all big fights.
One repercussion of such a fight would be the state of the welterweight and middleweight divisions. If GSP makes a permanent move to middleweight, the welterweight title would likely be vacated. What would the UFC do at that point? Could the UFC devise a “tournament” for the belt?
Of course, if Vito Belfort or Jake Shields pull off wins against the Spider or GSP, then all the discussion would be meaningless.
Combined with Dana’s comment that Silva should move up it looks like you get the super fight and then both move up. That will help the match making and the buy rates for the two champs are really stuck in fights that feel stale and repetitive.
Also the divisions they are leaving will start to look competitive again. I wonder if Dana would tell Fitch and Koschek that they could fight for the title? Tournaments would be the bomb but they can’t be steered the way Dana likes to do it so it will never happen.
I have to wonder if the prospect of Brock jumping ship has helped the Zuffa brass see the light on this.
I for one would like to see this fight and I believe Zuffa are more than capable of putting it together. Silva is not a huge draw by himself, so GSP should be able to muster some bigger numbers, perhaps close to the 850K PPV buy mark for the fight. With a strong co-headliner, quite possibly above 900K.
The question was the one and only question asked in a scheduled Q&A. (The troops were expecting only weigh-ins.) He noted that GSP would make the weight change permanent, without adding that he also said it would take him the best part of a year to do so. There was nothing in his tone or body language to suggest any doubt. He did say the fight “makes sense” and that he “thought” it would happen, but those are both habitual phrases for him—even if they’re handy at times. But the only wiggle room he made for himself was upsets of either of the champions in their already scheduled match-ups.
Regardless whether Dana intends to make that fight happen it’s smart of him to create that kind of buzz. It can only help to bring more eyes to Silva’s and GSP’s other fights. That’s just good promoting.